Mythical or Real? Part 3

 This week, we explore an abandoned Norse settlement in North America and a ‘Lake of Gold’ in South America.

4. L'Anse Aux Meadows (Vinland), Newfoundland – 1000 CE

For a long time, explorers searched for evidence of Vinland, a place described in the 13^th century Greenlanders’ Saga as having lush meadows, teeming salmon and wild grapes. If the legend was true, the site was briefly settled by Leif Erikson and his crew around 1000 CE. That would make it the first place “discovered” by Europeans in the New World. That settlement preceded the arrival of Christopher Columbus by almost 500 years. When they found evidence of Norse-designed sod-walled buildings on the far north coast of Newfoundland in Canada in the 1960s, archaeologists were hopeful that, at long last, Vinland had been found.

Soon, they identified European artifacts; a bronze cloak pin, a spindle whorl, a gilded fragment of brass, and a place for smelting and working iron. Scholars were convinced that they’d stumbled upon the fabled Vinland. They still continue to study the long-held secrets of this site today. It is called the L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, and it includes reconstructions of the original dwellings where Vikings lived (on-and-off) for about twenty years.

 

5. Lake Guatavita (El Dorado), Colombia – 1541 CE

Spanish conquistadors first described a mythical South American kingdom of unfathomable riches ruled by El Rey Dorado in 1541. According to what they said, this chief’s initiation rites included covering himself in gold dust and ceremonially dropping treasure into the center of a sacred lake. In the centuries that followed, explorers searched for the kingdom of “El Dorado” throughout Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil, but never found it. Eventually, they gave up.

But that doesn’t mean the story is completely false. Juan Pablo Quintero-Guzman, an archaeologist and the curator at Colombia’s Museum of Gold, says that “All lakes in the Muisca territory were places of offering.” He believes that similar rituals were carried out in some lakes but that Lake Guatavita was, from 600 to 1600 CE, the place where this ritual was performed the most often.

For the past 400 years, numerous artifacts have been pulled from Lake Guatavita. These artifacts include tumbaga (an alloy of gold and copper), emeralds, human-like clay vessels, hair, cotton, and animal skulls. Quintero-Guzman has evidence that rituals were taking place at the water’s edge, possibly at a temple or a ceremonial site intended for making offerings. His findings do not definitively prove that Lake Guatavita was the site spoken of by the conquistadors, but they do not contradict the possibility, either. At least for now, the chiefdom of Guatavita seems to be the most likely origin of the myth.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/nine-mythical-places-archaeologists-think-may-have-actually-existed/ar-AA1pZfYc?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=81421580eeb740c9bf0eb1832cd5508b&ei=66

Mythical or Real? Part 2

This week, we have a cave and a castle to explore.

2. Gorham’s Cave (Medusa’s Cave), Gibraltar – 600 BCE

As far as ancient mariners knew, Gorham’s Cave, a natural cavern at the base of the Pillars of Hercules in the Strait of Gibraltar, was the edge of the known world. But a study published in 2021 suggests that the cave may have played an even greater role in Greek mythology. Deep inside the cave, archaeologists found fragments from the head of a large, ceramic Gorgon dating to about the sixth century BCE. According to legends, the Gorgons were three monstrous sisters who terrorized Greek sailors by turning them to stone with a single look. Their lair was supposed to be near the Rock of Gibraltar. It was in their lair that Perseus beheaded the snake-haired Medusa—the most evil of the siblings—while she slept.

Other Medusa figures have been found in the region, but this was the first to be discovered inside a cave. By combining archaeological evidence, historical accounts, geography, and myth, researchers have concluded that Gorham’s Cave was likely the site that early seafarers believed to have been the home of the Gorgons, and the site of Medusa’s defeat. Visitors can examine the cave’s entrance on biweekly summer tours offered at the British territory of Gibraltar’s Gorham’s Cave Complex World Heritage Site, a limestone ridge off the southern tip of Spain.

Now, it’s my understanding that a cave in Gibraltar—possibly Gorham’s Cave—was inhabited by Neanderthals during the last ice age, and that stone tools, human and animal remains had been found in the cave.

 

3. Tintagel Castle (King Arthur’s Castle), England – 1203 CE

Writer Geoffrey of Monmouth described Tintagel Castle as the place of King Arthur’s conception. Since then, the 13^th-century fortress on the rocky coast of Cornwall, England, has been associated with Arthur’s legend. But until recently, no one knew that beneath the ruins of Tintagel Castle lay an even older settlement with features that could correspond to the legendary leader. It appears that the older settlement was an exceptional place, with goods and luxury commodities arriving from the Mediterranean world in great numbers. Although archaeologists can’t say for sure who ruled the earlier site, King Arthur fits the profile.

Whether he was actually there or not, King Arthur has very much become a part of the story that’s been handed down over generations. Tintagel Castle was built around 1203 CE by Richard, the Earl of Cornwall. It had no military value, but was constructed, in part, at least, to draw a connection between his authority and the legendary King Arthur.

Arthur’s myth is not the only one that haunts Tintagel Castle. There’s also a Celtic legend retold in the 12^th century as a story of forbidden love in which the knight Tristan fell in love with Princess Isolde even though she was set to marry King Mark of Cornwall. There are several places around Cornwall that are associated with King Mark, Tristan, and Isolde. Their story was circulating around Europe at the same time as King Arthur’s. But somehow, the ruins of Tintagel Castle became known at King Arthur’s home.

Mythical or Real? Part 1

This will be a continuing series for a while. I want to explore nine mythical places that archaeologists think may have actually existed.

History is rife with mythical lands, from the homes of legendary kings to the earthly abodes of gods and monsters. Past civilizations have dreamed of extraordinary places hiding in plain sight.

But while many people believe it unlikely that either Atlantis or Shangri-La was real, other myths may have more truth to them than anyone realized. A growing body of archaeological research suggests certain places—the Minotaur’s maze from Greek mythology; Vinland, the first North American Viking settlement mentioned in Norse sagas; Solomon’s Temple described in the Bible; and others—could have been more than fables.

From western Turkey to Jerusalem, and from coastal England to the Colombian Andes, evidence indicates that these nine mythical places may have really existed.

Let’s look at the first one today.

1. Troy, Turkey – 1200 BCE

The city of Troy was at the heart of Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. It is one of the most legendary sites of classical Greek mythology. Fantastic details are woven into the tales such as; the interference of the gods in the Trojan War, the half-divine heritage of the Spartan hero Achilles, and the gift of a wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers. But these days, archaeologists believe some aspects of the stories were true.

Nearly 150 years of excavations at the site of Troy in modern Turkey have revealed that it was occupied for 4,000 years. Also, during the Late Bronze Age (when Homer’s Trojan War allegedly took place), the Trojans began to prepare for an insurgence from outside.

Researchers are still looking for proof of the battle that raged outside the city’s walls for ten years. If it’s there, it’s buried under 65 feet of sediment, which built up alongside the shifting Scamander (now the Karamenderes) River. It’s the mouth of that river that makes Troy so important in the first place. Troy was settled over and over again because if you controlled the harbor, you controlled the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

Troy isn’t the only mythological site discovered in the region. Apollon Smintheion is an imposing temple built for the god Apollo on top of a settlement from the sixth century BCE. Antandros was an ancient shipbuilding settlement. These and the sacred forests of Mount Ida are all historical sites that correspond to places mentioned in the Ilied and Aeneid. Together, they now make up Turkey’s Aeneas Route, a tourist corridor following the epic journey taken by Aeneas, the father of Rome, after he escaped Troy’s sacking by the Greeks.

Proofreading

I reached a point earlier this year where I needed to make some extra money, in order to pay off some bills. The local fast-food restaurants were hiring, but I did that as a teenager, and I didn’t want to go backwards. I retired from my day job in 2011, and I was used to staying home, or going out to run errands, whenever I wanted. I wanted something part-time that I could do at home.

After looking around at various possibilities, I decided to take some training on how to proofread other people’s work. I felt I was halfway there already, since a typo or misplaced word always made me stop reading to figure out what was amiss.

I worked my way through the lessons, and the quizzes at the end of each lesson. Most of the lessons I was familiar with, but I even mastered the quizzes having to do with punctuating dependent clauses and participial phrases, when one or the other was all I had to worry about. I got through all the lessons and then downloaded 40 practice essays to proofread and 2 worksheets to do. These are to be done before I take the final exam. I have worked my way through half of them so far.

The actual proofreading is not as easy as I thought it would be, even though I can (and should) do as much research as I need to do. I always have the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), a dictionary, and Google open and ready on my computer when I start to proofread. And still I make mistakes.

First, CMOS is not the easiest manual to figure out. Sometimes I can’t find anything on the problem I’m looking for, possibly because I don’t know what kind of sentence I’m looking at. Is one of the clauses dependent? Is one of these clauses actually a participial phrase? I’ve decided to go back and restudy the lessons on these sentence parts before I attempt to proofread any more practice essays.

Second, some of the subject matter (like music), I don’t know anything about, and that makes it hard to catch misspelled words. In another essay, it mentioned a Japanese management method, and it capitalized the name. The name wasn’t in the dictionary, but Google knew what it was, and it capitalized the name every time, even in the middle of a sentence. So I didn’t correct it, only to be told that it should have been uncapped and italicized, as a foreign word.

Third, there are a lot of times when I don’t think 2 words should be joined as one word, but the dictionary says they are. I catch some of them, but frequently, I don’t catch them all. I have to be more diligent in looking up 2 words that might be joined into one word.

No, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. I always go through these essays 3 and 4 times, trying to catch all the mistakes. But that just means that once I start proofreading for real, I will earn every penny I charge.

On the upside, I dug out my old college textbook from my English class. I started a ‘cheat sheet’ on parts of sentences to help me figure out if I’m looking at a clause or just a phrase, and how to punctuate it. I read that cheat sheet every day to remind myself what’s on it, and it has become another resource I have ready and at hand when I’m proofing. My number of mistakes has gone down, and they are rarely mistakes about where to put a comma. So I’m making progress.

Humans reach southern South America

DNA from 139 Indigenous groups reveal that humans reached southern South America by 14,500 years ago.

A new genetic analysis reveals that humans crossing from Asia along the Bering Land Bridge during the last ice age underwent three major population splits as they traveled through the Americas. This journey has been identified as the longest human migration out of Africa. Eventually, a group settled in the southern part of South America some 14,500 years ago.

An international team of scientists analyzed 1,537 genomes of people from 139 different ethnic groups to identify genetic characteristics of the earliest Americans.

The GenomeAsia 100K consortium collected the genetic material, including some from Asian populations whose ancestors made early migrations into the Americas. The scientists were able to identify the genetic background of indigenous people throughout the Americas. They pinpointed three key time periods when the long-distance travelers split up.

The first population split occurred between 26,800 and 19,300 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. This was when Indigenous Americans split from North Eurasian people. These dates are consistent with a Native American presence at White Sands in New Mexico, as evidenced by ancient footprints and vehicle drag marks dated to 23,000 to 21,000 years ago.

The next major population split happened between 17,500 and 14,600 years ago. The indigenous population in North America split, and some made their way south. This Mesoamerican group then split rapidly into four native genetic lineages around 13,900 years ago. These groups were ancestral Pueblo peoples in the southwest US, as well as Amazonians, Andeans and Patagonians in South America.

This estimation actually fits well with the archaeological records, which indicate that people were living in the furthest southern reaches of the South American continent by about 14,500 years ago.

As people made their way into the new land tens of thousands of years ago, they experienced a reduction in their genetic diversity. First it was because of geographic barriers. Later, the populations were decimated after the arrival of European colonists.

One key loss was in the variation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. A high diversity of HLA genes is important for immune system health. In regions such as Southeast Asia with a high number of disease-causing organisms, previous studies found a high diversity of HLA genes. But in the Indigenous South American genomes, there was significantly lower diversity in the HLA genes. This may have led to these people being more vulnerable to novel pathogens.

One of the researchers’ aims is to emphasize the special medical needs of contemporary Indigenous peoples. Some have gene variants associated with problems like adverse drug reactions.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/humans-reached-southern-south-america-by-14-500-years-ago-genomes-from-139-indigenous-groups-reveal/ar-AA1ER86r?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=e2137095d6244d2d9b66aa91eafcef03&ei=65

What Was the Earth Like?

We’ve examined some of the creatures that existed before the dinosaurs, but what was the Earth like way back then?

From 354 to 290 million years ago was the Carboniferous Period. Hot and humid conditions covered the northern landmass, while the southern lands were much colder. Large club mosses, tree ferns, and horsetails grew in swamps and estuaries, along with seed-bearing plants. Some plants were up to 100 feet tall.

The insect population was quite varied, with millipedes, dragonflies, and other bugs. Some flying insects had wingspans up to two feet wide! Around the middle of the period, reptiles evolved as the first land-dwelling animals, and sharks and bony fishes replaced the jawless agnathans and armored placodems in the seas. Starfish, gastropods, sea urchins, and other marine invertebrates flourished on the reefs.

Approximately 350 million years ago, coal forests began to form in wetlands at the edges of continents. The submerged plant matter did not decompose completely and ended up being buried. This eventually transformed into coal.

The early reptiles had similar skeletal features to those of amphibians, but there were differences in their skulls and vertebrae that signified their relationship to later reptiles such as turtles and dinosaurs.

Then came glaciations, a decrease in sea levels, and the formation of Pangaea, when the continents joined together. A minor extinction event of both marine and land life happened at the end of the period due to climate change. This is known as the Carboniferous rainforest collapse.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/9-massive-prehistoric-animals-that-lived-before-dinosaurs/ar-BB1pX9NZ?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=4b29427ca0eb40e9a777238542e8cbdc&ei=39

Pre-Dinosaurs Prehistoric Animals

Dinosaurs wandered the Earth for millions of years, searching for food and defending their territories. They roamed the world from 252- to 66-million years ago. But what about before the dinosaurs? It turns out that Earth’s creatures were highly diverse, as well as enormous. Let’s take a look at 9 massive prehistoric animals that lived before dinosaurs.

Scutosaurus

This “shield lizard” arose around 298 million years ago. It was among the largest reptiles at the time. It features a 20-inch spiked skull and an armor-plated body that could grow over 10 feet. It was hulking and intimidating, but research suggests it was a slow, heavy-footed herbivore that walked for miles through its desert habitat looking vegetation. It was vulnerable to predators, like the Gorgonopsids.

Gorgonopsids

Named after the Greek Gorgon, this group of saber-toothed mammals had narrow skulls and elongated teeth, which they used to slash and stab. They were vicious hunters. They would take chunks out of their target and retreat until it was so weak, they couldn’t avoid the final, killing bite. Gorgonopsids may have begun relatively small but evolved to bear sized. They became apex predators in area of Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi.

Pterygotus

This sea scorpion was an enormous predatory aquatic arthropod. It reached almost 6 feet and lived on Earth’s oceans, hunting other creatures, such as fish. I had no stinger, but had behemoth claws and would wait in ambush for its prey, when it would grab and puncture them with its pincers. The first Pterygotus fossils were found in early Devonian deposits in Scotland and Western England. Some of its features are recognizable in modern sea creatures, but sea scorpions no longer exist.

Dimetrodon Angelensis

Although this creature look reptilian, it’s not related to dinosaurs. It’s more closely related to mammals, though it’s not a mammal. It belongs to a group of advanced carnivores. Its most prominent feature is a sizeable spine sail, supported by spines extending from its vertebrate. I walked on 4 legs, had a curved skull, and large teeth. Its fossils have been found in southwestern US, in Oklahoma and Texas.

Jaekelopterus

This was another giant scorpion living during the Devonian Period 390 million years ago. It was the biggest arthropod ever, growing over eight feet long. This scorpion developed in freshwater systems like rivers, where it was an apex predator. Research suggests it chased its prey in lagoons and estuaries with much maneuverability and agility.

Arthropleura

Gigantic millipede arthropods roamed the forests of North America and Europe 345 million years ago. They were the largest land invertebrates ever and wouldn’t have had many predators. They grew over 7 feet and could stand upright and spray acid at any threat. These millipedes were some of the first plant-eaters. Their powerful jaws were used to break down tough vegetative matter.

Meganeura

This was the largest flying insect and resembled a modern dragonfly. It inhabited the forests alongside the Arthropleura and mainly consumed other insects. Its wingspan reached 25.6 inches. Its larvae was at least 12 inches long. It spent much of its time in the air, looking for food. Scientists first discovered it fossil in France in 1880.

Titanichthys

This was a giant armored fish from the late Devonian Period. It lived I shallow seas. Scientists believe it was the first large vertebrate filter feeder, using its mouth to inhale small fish. It could reach a length of 16 feet, had a huge mouth, and blunt teeth.

Aegirocassis

This creature lived 480 million years ago. It was the largest animal to exist at the time and the earliest giant filter feeder. This arthropod most closely resembled a prawn. It reached 7 feet long and had swimming flaps and a filtering mesh that helped guide food into its mouth. It lived in a shallow sea that covered what is today the Sahara Desert.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/9-massive-prehistoric-animals-that-lived-before-dinosaurs/ar-BB1pX9NZ?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=4b29427ca0eb40e9a777238542e8cbdc&ei=39

Lost Mayan City Found

Archaeologists were scanning through jungle terrain when they stumbled on what could have been an important Maya location. They discovered a mysterious structure built under a ball court, which was popular in large Maya cities. Other discoveries included pyramids and evidence of drainage systems. Most of the findings have been calculated to have been used between 200 AD to 1000 AD.

The height of the Maya kingdom stretched from 250 to 900 AD. The rise of the Maya Ballgame, sometimes called pitz, saw the building of ball court structures in the center of major cities. These courts were a symbol of wealth and power, hence their prime placement.

Not only was one of these courts found in a Mexican jungle, but also uncovered was a cryptic construction under the court, leading to questions about the structure’s use.

Archaeologists were exploring light detection and ranging (lidar) readings in the Mexican state Campeche when they noticed unique shapes in a roughly 54-square-mile section of the Balam Ku Biosphere Reserve. The shapes were actually modest-sized settlements with a few larger buildings. There were practically no standing walls, and no key architectural decoration.

The impression was that the Maya culture of this region was less elaborate than those in other regions.

While excavating the ball court, the team discovered parts of a building covered with remnants of painted stucco located beneath. Because ball courts were typically built at the center of cities, speculation is that the building had some prominence as well. But speculation is all they have for now. It is estimated that the building dates somewhere between 200 and 600 AD.

Other major finds include a main plaza surrounded with elongated structures. The plaza features a pyramid and a drainage channel. The team believes the site was occupied from 600 to 1000 AD.

Another discovery is a 52-foot-tall pyramid near a water reservoir, complete with the remains of offerings atop the structure. The offering remnants included ceramic fragments, a flint point, and an animal leg, likely of an armadillo or large rodent. The scientists believe this find dates from 1250 to 1524 AD and that it shows the presence of humans in the area even after the height of the Maya civilization and before the arrival of the Spanish.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeologists-found-the-lost-remnants-of-a-maya-civilization-hiding-in-the-jungle/ar-BB1q5oE3?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=12b3e586097c4b7aaa0255d8b328da29&ei=46

What Existed Before The Big Bang

Our universe began with The Big Bang. But what existed before the Big Bang?

From the University of Texas at Austin, researchers propose that dark matter might have been created during a brief, explosive period of expansion called “Cosmic Inflation,” which occurred just before the Big Bang. The universe, at that point, would have consisted of mostly dark matter, completely undetectable to our eyes.

Scientists believe that dark matter makes up roughly 85% of all matter. This study suggests that the substance existed before the event that many consider the beginning of time.

The model for the study assumes that dark matter is successfully produced during inflation. In most models, anything that is created during inflation is thinned away by the expansion of the universe until there is essentially nothing left.

The research introduces a mechanism called WIFI (Warm Inflation Freeze-In), which suggests that dark matter could have been generated during the universe’s earliest moments through rare interactions within an incredibly hot and energetic environment.

Cosmologists understand the universe’s beginning was more complex than a simple explosive moment. Before the Big Bang, matter and energy were compressed into an incredibly dense state that physicists struggle to describe. A fraction of a second of rapid expansion preceded the Big Bang, setting the stage for everything that would follow.

In this new model, the quantum field driving inflation loses some energy to radiation, which then produces dark matter particles through a process called ‘freeze-in’. According to this research, all the dark matter that exists today could have been created during that brief inflationary period.

The study focused on the production of dark matter, but WIFI suggests the production of other particles that could play a role in the early universe’s evolution.

Although currently unconfirmable through direct observation, the theory opens exciting new avenues for exploring the universe’s fundamental building blocks. The researchers are optimistic that upcoming experiments studying the Cosmic Microwave Background and large sale universal structures could provide validation.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-may-finally-know-what-existed-before-the-big-bang/ar-AA1vY9Mf?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=51d4d625bcc24515f51422de711080a7&ei=66

Life on Mars?

Do you believe there was past life on Mars? Here’s what new NASA evidence indicates.

Dry, cold and barren. Mars doesn’t seem like a haven for life—at least not the kind humans are familiar with.

Scientists have wondered for decades if microbial life could have inhabited Mars in the distant past. One study, based on data collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, is peeling back a layer of the mystery. Researchers measured the isotopic composition of carbon-rich minerals found in Gale Crater. This region is laced with dried rivers and gullies and was explored by the rover.

The findings Curiosity sent to Earth were not optimistic about the potential for life above ground. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of an underground biosphere or even a surface biosphere that began and ended before the carbonates were formed.

This suggests two possible ways carbon-rich minerals could have form at Gale crater: a series of alternating wet and dry periods or salty-ice conditions. These two climate scenarios could be called ‘bleak’ and ‘bleaker’ when it comes to supporting life.

In an environment that swings from wet to dry, the region would shift from more habitable to less habitable. In the frigid temperatures near Mars’ equator, that environment would be hostile for life because most water would be frozen and inaccessible for chemistry or biology. Plus, what water was there was extremely salty, not pleasant for life.

This isn’t the first time scientists have theorized these climate scenarios for ancient Mars. Previous computer models have indicated these conditions before, but now they have isotopic evidence from Martian rocks.

Scientists have sought life on Mars since the first spacecraft touched down there in 1976. Mounting evidence from robotic explorers has shown the Red Planet to have been warmer and wetter, perhaps more than 3 billion years ago.

The Perseverance rover discovered a spotted rock with compelling signs of ancient dead Martian life, but a sample would need to be shipped to Earth for confirmation. A research team also reported evidence of a vast ocean of water below the planet’s surface. On Earth, where there’s water, there’s often life.

Scientists are interested in Mars’ carbon-rich rocks because they can hold clues about the environment in which they formed, such as the temperature and acidity of the water, and ingredients in the water and air.

The sampled rocks indicate lots of evaporation, suggesting a climate that could only support transient liquid water—that is, ice that melts when temperatures rise and the surface pressure is right.

The heavy isotope values in the rocks are much higher than what’s seen on Earth. They are the heaviest carbon and oxygen isotope values recorded for any Martian materials. Although evaporation can cause oxygen isotope changes on Earth, the changes in the Martian samples were two to three times greater.

But this doesn’t negate the possibility of life. Mars has a network of deep caves formed by ancient volcanic vents. Within the caves could be liquid water, traces of long-deceased bacteria or fungi, or perhaps even existing microbial life.

Caves can host complex ecosystems, including extremophiles that munch on rocks and convert the material into energy for life. So, many astrobiologists want to go spelunking on Mars. Would you like to join them?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/past-life-on-mars-here-s-what-new-nasa-evidence-points-to/ar-AA1rWIgJ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=5432d20e554e4f3ea664d26edcf277ee&ei=74

Lost Temple of Poseidon

After 2,600 years, the lost Temple of Poseidon has been found, and it is even bigger than expected.

It seemed obvious that there would be a temple dedicated to Poseidon, the ancient Greek god of water. But the temple was lost for a long time and re-discovered recently. The ruins were found in Elis, Greece, and identified as the Temple of Poseidon of Samikon, which was described by the ancient Greek geographer Strabo. Archeologists now say the temple is even larger than they thought.

Scientists had searched for the lost temple for over a century in the area’s marshlands and found it in 2022. It sits in Samikon in the Peloponnese peninsula. It is hoped the discovery would shed light on the political and economic importance of the 6th century BC amphictyony, which is an association of neighboring states to defend a common religious center. The temple formed the center of the town’s cultural and religious identity.

Excavations in 2023 revealed more parts of the temple, indicating the size of the temple was larger than initial investigations had predicted. The building now measures around 28 meters long and over 9 meters wide. It has two interior rooms, a vestibule and a rear hall or shrine. The function of the two rooms is unclear. Some suggest it could be a double temple, where two deities were worshipped. Or one room could be a meeting room to discuss important matters.

This Archaic temple consists of two main rooms. A central row of two columns was found in the first hall supported a large roof covered with tiles. There may have also been similar columns in the second room. The ground plan of the temple is unusual, and archeologists know of no comparable buildings so far.

Research shows there were two construction phases. In the second half of the 4^th or first half of the 3^rd century BC, the original temple was remodeled. As part of the process, the old roof tiles were applied as a subfloor for the new floor, where they served as insulation against groundwater and to stabilize the floor. Where tiles are missing, the ground is damp and muddy. These dates correspond to pottery found at the site, such as drinking cups and roof tiles.

The excavations are part of a five-year project. Strabo, an ancient Greek geographer, had suggested the temple would be near the coast, in a grove of wild olive trees, with lagoons, coastal marches and swamps. Because of his writings, and technological advancements, researchers found the temple 2,600 years after it was built.

The team wants to find out more about the sanctuary and its dimensions. Are other temple buildings, altars, houses, a processional route or treasuries still hidden under the earth?

How Life on Earth Could Have Started

Scientists redid an experiment and found a new possibility of how life on Earth could have started.

In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr Henry Frankenstein howled his triumph as massive bolts of lightning crackled and Frankenstein’s monster stirred on a laboratory table, its pieced-together corpse brought to life by the power of electricity.

Electrical energy may have also sparked the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest direct fossil evidence of ancient life is stromatolites, microscopic organism preserved in layers known as microbial mats. These are about 3.5 billion years old. However, some scientists suspect life originated even earlier, emerging from accumulated organic molecules in bodies of water, a mixture sometimes referred to as primordial soup.

But where did that organic material come from? Decades ago, researchers proposed that lightning caused chemical reactions in the oceans, and spontaneously produced organic molecules.

New research suggests that fizzes of barely visible “microlightning,” generated between charged droplets of water mist, could have cooked up amino acids from inorganic materials. Amino acids are life’s most basic building blocks and would have been the first step forward in the evolution of life.

For amino acids to form, they needed nitrogen atoms that could bond with carbon. Freeing up atoms from nitrogen gas requires severing powerful molecular bonds and takes an enormous amount of energy. Even microlightning has enough energy to break molecular bonds.

In 1953, chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey combined ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water inside a glass sphere to mimic the atmosphere of ancient Earth. They then jolted that atmosphere with electricity, producing simple amino acids. This experiment supported the theory that life could emerge from nonliving molecules.

Scientists revisited the 1953 experiment but directed their attention toward electrical activity on a smaller scale. They looked at electricity exchanged between water droplets measuring between 1 micron and 20 microns in diameter. (The width of a human hair is 100 microns.) The big droplets were positively charged. The little droplets were negatively charged. When oppositely charged droplets are close together, electrons can jump from the negative charge to the positively charged.

The researchers mixed ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen in a glass bulb, then sprayed the gases with water mist. A high-speed camera captured faint flashes of microlightning in the vapor. When they examined the bulb’s contents, they found organic molecules, including the amino acid glycine and uracil, a nucleotide base in RNA.

For the first time, scientists have seen that little droplets of water emit light and a spark. And that spark causes all types of chemical transformations.

Lightning is a dramatic display of electrical power, but it sporadic and unpredictable. Lightning may have been too infrequent to produce amino acids in quantities sufficient for life. Water spray, however, would have been more common than lightning. It is more likely that mist-generated microlightning constantly zapped amino acids into existence from pools and puddles, where the molecules could accumulate and form more complex molecules.

However, questions remain about life’s origins. An alternative abiogenesis hypothesis proposes that Earth’s first amino acids were cooked up around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. Yet another hypothesis suggests that organic molecules didn’t originate on Earth at all. Rather, they formed in space and were carried here by comets or fragments of asteroids, a process known as panspermia.

What do you think is a likely explanation?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-redid-an-experiment-that-showed-how-life-on-earth-could-have-started-they-found-a-new-possibility/ar-AA1BPYjK?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=55f7946bb40046bca0f5c028e2b5ca06&ei=38

Viking Skeletons

Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures.

Archaeologists found Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures.

Near the village of Asum in Denmark, people had no idea they were standing on the well-preserved graves of 50 Viking-era skeletons. Archaeologists happened upon the graves during a routine survey in preparation for a construction project.

Normally, they would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here they had entire skeletons. They dated the burial site to the 9^th or 10th centuries, more than 1,000 years ago.

In addition to the skeletons, they uncovered rare trinkets and treasures buried with the bodies. For example, sone of the jewelry did not originate in Denmark. As the scientists suspected, the graves told them story of people connected to international trade routes.

These routes provided avenues to exchanging goods, allowing the wealthy to acquire rare and prized items from distant lands. They also helped establish nearby Odense, the third largest city in Denmark.

Some days I regret that I never had the chance to dig in the dirt and happen across such grisly remains.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeologists-found-viking-skeletons-over-1-000-years-old-buried-with-a-crystal-and-other-treasures-they-re-improving-our-understanding-of-how-wealthy-vikings-once-lived/ss-AA1snO4V?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=ed46623d933043f19069e3bf9a8f9350&ei=38

Message from Mars

Father and daughter decipher message coming from Mars.

Ken and Keli Chaffin, a father/daughter team from the US, have deciphered a simulated “extraterrestrial” message that was transmitted in May 2023 via a radio signal sent by the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The message was intercepted by three observatories on Earth. It was part of a project which aimed to engage citizen scientists in decoding an alien message.

The Chaffins realized that the message contained a diagram that represented the structures of five amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life. According to specialists, the Chaffins conducted hours-long simulations every day and ultimately organized the bits into coherent structures using computer simulations and reversible cellular automata.

The simulated signal was received on Earth 16 minutes after it was sent. A worldwide community of over 5,000 citizen scientists went to work on the raw data and managed to extract the signal within ten days. This extraction of the encrypted message from the raw radio signal showcases the potential of global collaboration

The project, called “A Sign in Space”, was initiated by artist Daniela de Paulis in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. It was conceived to test which methods might be useful for decoding transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations.

According to the European Space Agency, the results of the project showed that if humanity ever receives a signal from real extraterrestrials, citizen scientists could play a crucial role in deciphering it. The involvement of so many amateur scientists and the success of the Chaffins demonstrate the power of collaborative efforts and diverse approaches.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/father-daughter-duo-decipher-message-coming-from-mars/ar-AA1tpWJl?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6fc7dd98f17b42d8852b3bbcb7f5d7c6&ei=69

Ancient Europeans were Dark

New research finds that most prehistoric Europeans had dark skin, hair, and eyes until about 3,000 years ago.

The genes that cause lighter skin, hair and eyes emerged among early Europeans only about 14,000 years ago, during the Old Stone Age. But light features appeared only sporadically until relatively recently. If I had to guess, I would say that the genes for lighter features are recessive, and a person would have had to get the recessive genes from both mother and father, which wouldn’t have happened that often.

Lighter skin may have had an evolutionary advantage for Europeans because it enabled people to synthesize more vitamin D in Europe’s weaker sunlight. But lighter eye color, like blue or green, does not seem to have any major evolutionary advantages, so its eventual emergence may have been driven by chance or sexual selection.

Scientists analyzed 348 samples of ancient DNA from archaeological sites in 34 countries in Western Europe and Asia. The oldest, from 45,000 years ago, was from western Siberia, and another high-quality DNA sample came from a 9,000-year-old individual from Sweden. But many of the older samples were badly degraded, in which case the researchers estimated their pigmentation using “probabilistic phenotype inference” and the HlrisPlex-S system, which can predict eye, hair, and skin color from an incomplete DNA sample.

Palaeoanthropologists think the first Homo sapiens arrived permanently in Europe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, which meant they weren’t far removed from African modern human ancestors. Therefore, early Europeans initially only had genetics for dark skin, hair, and eyes. This coloring relies on hundreds of interconnected genes.

The study showed that the frequency of people dark skin was still high in parts of Europe until the Copper Age, about 5,000 years ago. In some areas, dark skin appeared frequently until even later.

Researchers found that light eyes emerged in Northern and Western Europe between 14,000 and 4,000 years ago, even though dark hair and skin were still dominant at that time. There were those who bucked the trend; as a 1-year-old boy living in Europe about 17,000 years ago had dark hair and skin, but blue eyes.

The genetic basis for lighter skin seems to have emerged in Sweden at about the same time as lighter eyes but initially remained relatively rare. The research also showed a statistical “spike” in the incidence of light eyes color at this time, which suggests that blue or green eyes were more prevalent at that time than earlier or later.

So it looks like the Nazis were wrong. Instead of blond hair and blue eyes proving the owners were “pure”, these traits actually proved these individuals were descended from “mutants”.

But then, all of us are, because that’s how evolution works.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/most-ancient-europeans-had-dark-skin-eyes-and-hair-up-until-3-000-years-ago-new-research-finds/ar-AA1AN5EZ?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=92b66b3d61ca48d8deba7416e37ab7fb&ei=36

A Radio Signal From 15 Billion Miles Away

An aging spacecraft turned on a radio transmitter it hasn’t used in decades.

47-year-old Voyager 1 is back in touch with NASA. A technical issue caused a days-long communications blackout with the historic mission, which is 15 billion miles away, in interstellar space. While engineers work to understand what went wrong, Voyager is now using a radio transmitter it hadn’t used since 1981.

Launched in September 1977, the NASA team has slowly turned off components to conserve power. This has allowed the aging spacecraft to send back science data from time to time.

The probe is the farthest spacecraft from Earth, now operating beyond the heliosphere, which is the sun’s bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends well beyond Pluto’s orbit. Now Voyager’s instruments can directly sample interstellar space.

The new problem is one of many the vehicle has faced in recent months, but the Voyager’s team keeps finding creative solutions.

Occasionally, engineers command Voyager 1 to turn on some heaters to warm components that have sustained radiation damage. The heat can help reverse the damage. Messages are relayed to Voyager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Deep Space Network. A system of radio antennas on Earth helps facilitate communications with Voyagers 1 and 2, and other spacecraft. When Voyager 1 sends data about how it is responding to the commands, it takes about 23 hours for a message to travel one way.

But when a recent command to the heater was sent, something triggered the spacecraft’s autonomous fault protection system. If the spacecraft draws more power than it should, this system shuts off non-essential systems. The team discovered the latest issue when it didn’t get the response signal.

Voyager 1 has been using its X-band radio transmitter for decades. Its second transmitter, called the S-band, hasn’t been used since 1981 because its signal is much fainter. The team believes the fault protection system shifted the spacecraft to the S-band transmitter, which uses less power.

The team won’t command Voyager 1 to turn on the X-band transmitter until it figures out what happened, which could take weeks. They want to determine if there are any risks to turning on the X-band. But if the team can get the X-band working again, they may get some data that reveals what happened.

In the meantime, they don’t want to rely on the S-band for too long, because its signal is too weak.

You’ve got to give it to NASA, when they build something, they build it to last. Billions of miles further than a car would.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/aging-spacecraft-starts-up-a-radio-transmitter-it-hasn-t-used-since-1981-from-15-billion-miles-away/ar-AA1tkOkQ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a178edabc1e45ac98d75dfb769caebc&ei=81

An Ice Age Infant

By analyzing the DNA of a baby found in southern Italy, scientists have a striking picture of the young boy. The poorly developed child lived during the Ice Age about 17,000 years ago. He likely had curly dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes.

In 1998, his remains were discovered in the Grotta delle Mura cave in Monopoli, Puglia. The baby’s bones were carefully covered with rock slabs. With no grave goods, the simple burial was the only grave in the cave.

The largely intact skeleton revealed the child was about 2.5 feet tall when he died. Recent dental examination revealed he was between 8 and 18 months old. Radiocarbon dating stated the remains were 16,910 to 17,320 years old, meaning he lived a few centuries after the Last Glacial Maximum, when glaciers covered a quarter of the planet’s land, some 20,000 years ago.

Ancient skeletons found in warm climates are often too degraded for any significant genetic analysis. But the cave was so cool, the boy’s remains were well preserved. Researchers were able to recover about 75% of the boy’s genome, which is remarkable.

His skin was darker than most modern Europeans’, but his pale blue eyes match those of other western European hunter-gatherers. The infant appears to be related to the Villabruna cluster, a group of post Ice Age people who lived up to 14,000 years ago. This suggests the Villabruna line began in southern Europe well before the end of the Ice Age.

Researchers also determined his cause of death. He had an inherited condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken. This results in fatal congestive heart failure.

Nine accentuated lines marking the baby’s teeth indicate “physiological stress events” that occurred before and after birth. Isotopes in the teeth suggest that his mother stayed in one area during pregnancy and may have been malnourished. His birth was likely difficult, according to a fracture in the baby’s collarbone.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/an-ice-age-infant-s-17-000-year-old-dna-reveals-he-had-dark-skin-and-blue-eyes/ar-AA1sFhf0?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=ed46623d933043f19069e3bf9a8f9350&ei=23

Super-Jupiter Found

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft was surveying the Milky Way and found a planet 12 times more massive than Jupiter. This planet, which has been dubbed Gaia-4b, is 244 light-years away and orbits a star smaller than our sun.

Gaia also discovered a brown dwarf, which is not quite a planet or a star. The brown dwarf is called Gaia-5b, is 134 light-years from Earth, and also orbits a star smaller than our sun.

The Gaia spacecraft was recently retired because it was running out of fuel. Both of the enormous celestial objects were made official after confirmation from other instruments. These tidbits of information are an intriguing tease about what other data may be released from the Gaia mission.

According to NASA, the number of confirmed exoplanets is over 5,800, with thousands more candidates under review. It is estimated that this number is a tiny sampling of planets in space.

Gais-4b, the super-Jupiter, is a relatively cold gas giant that orbits its star once every 570 Earth-days. Its star is estimated to be about 2/3 the mass of the sun. Gaia-4b is one of the biggest planets known to circle a small star.

A brown dwarf is sometimes referred to as a failed star because it lacks enough mass to generate its own nuclear power. Gaia-5b orbits an even smaller star, about 1/3 of our sun’s mass, in slightly less than an Earth year. Although Gaia-5b didn’t make it as a star, it’s about 21 times bigger than Jupiter. And Jupiter’s mass is about equal to 318 Earths.

Gaia-4b is the spacecraft’s first success using the “wobble” technique. Launched in 2013, the spacecraft used a pair of optical telescopes to scan the sky. Because of its precision in tracking the motion of stars, it is believed its data may lead to thousands of new discoveries.

The gravity of orbiting planets can cause host stars to wobble. Planet hunters are adept at interpreting this data. But confirmation from other telescopes is key, because there are other possible reasons for the motion.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spacecraft-finds-a-positively-enormous-planet-12-times-jupiter-s-mass/ar-AA1ys8fc?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=2aff526efe7b4e5086a7c5168c21d057&ei=41

Neanderthals’ Mysterious Extinction

Neanderthal DNA reveals 50,000-year-old viruses that could help explain their extinction. In a study of ancient Neanderthal DNA, researchers found traces of 3 viruses that cause colds, cold sores, genital warts, and cancer.

Ancient humans might have been responsible for spreading these bugs, but I don’t think we need to blame only homo erectus, for there were several types of ancient humans around at the same time as Neanderthals.

Most experts think the Neanderthal species went extinct from a variety of causes, including changing climate, low fertility rates and human interactions. As can be seen from illnesses that swept through American Natives after the arrival of European settlers, trying to recover from unfamiliar illnesses introduced by distant cousins wouldn’t have helped. Poor health can have a negative impact on survival.

Not only could these ancient viruses help explain the Neanderthals’ extinction, but they might help us better understand the modern versions that still infect humans today.

About 54,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals lived in Chagyrskaya Cave in Southern Siberia. Researchers studied the DNA data of two people from the cave to look for 3 viruses: adenovirus, herpesvirus, and papillomamirus. Adenovirus can cause colds and flu, herpesviruses can cause cold sores or genital warts, and some cancers are linked to papillomavirus.

A 2021 study discovered adenovirus in 31,600-year-old human teeth from Siberia. This more-recent study is nearly 50,000 years old. Some experts estimate humans and Neanderthals interbred between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago. Besides DNA, they probably passed around diseases.

A 2016 study suggested that breeding with Neanderthals may have boosted humans’ immunity to previously unknown diseases. But the Neanderthals may have been less lucky. A cold does not have to be fatal to decrease hunting efficiency or other abilities. With an already small population, getting sick might have contributed to Neanderthals’ extinction roughly 40,000 years ago.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/scientists-discovered-50-000-year-old-viruses-in-neanderthal-dna-that-could-help-explain-their-mysterious-extinction/ar-BB1nKNuC?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=f10bd090b2834e28ca31725fb862078f&ei=41

 

ASD

It’s called Accumulated Stress Disorder. At least, that’s what I call it. It’s symptoms are continued fatigue, a disinterest in doing pretty much everything, and a severe disinterest in the idea of ‘adulting’. That’s what I’ve been dealing with for a couple of weeks now.

I’ve been sleeping about 12 hours at night, and sometimes I lay down for a 2-hr nap in the afternoon. A lot of days, 90% of my to do list for that day gets shunted to the next day. I don’t want to drive anybody to the doctor’s office, not even myself. I don’t want to go shopping or picking up meds or even just leave the house.

But some things can’t be procrastinated, like doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping and picking up meds. So I do them, and when I get home, I try taking a nap. That can help calm me down for the rest of the day, but it’s the sleeping for 12 hours that seems to help tamp down the accumulated stress.

My counselor suggests I book one day a week as ‘Me’ time. A day with no appointments, no errands, just me at home, writing on my latest Work in Progress. I love the idea. I have said many times that writing helps me stay sane. I used to think the weekends were ideal for this, but this weekend, I ran errands for the family on Saturday, and on Sunday, John decided he wanted to go to Walmart, so I drove him there and home again. Then I took a 2-hr nap to calm down and washed the dishes. Thus, the weekend was full of adulting.

But Thursday was empty. I kept it empty so I could spend the day writing. Well, I had to adult for quite a bit of the day, but I did get 3 hours of writing in the afternoon! I wrote over a thousand words, so I was happy about that.

Colorado 'swamp dweller' mammal

Working near Rangely, Colorado, paleontologists have uncovered an unknown state resident—a fossil mammal about the size of a muskrat that may have scurried through swamps during the Age of Dinosaurs.

They identified the creature from a piece of jawbone and 3 molar teeth, and named it Heleocola piceanus. It lived in Colorado roughly 70 to 75 million years ago, at a time when an inland sea covered large portions of the American West. “Heleocola” roughly translates to “swamp dweller” in Latin.

Said one team member, “Colorado is a great place to find fossils, but mammals from this time period tend to be pretty rare. So it’s really neat to see this slice of time preserved in Colorado.”

Compared to the much larger dinosaurs living at the time, like tyrannosaurs or horned ancestors of Triceratops, this new fossil might seem tiny and insignificant. But it was surprisingly large for mammals at the time.

This discovery helps paint a more complete picture of a Colorado that would be all but unrecognizable to residents today. Seventy million years ago, this area was where land met water. Creatures like turtles, duck-billed dinosaurs and giant crocodiles may have flourished in marshes and estuaries, gorging themselves on wetland vegetation and fish.

The bit of mammal jaw emerged from a slab of sandstone that was collected from the site in 2016. The fossil measured about an inch long.

Before an asteroid killed off the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, mammals tended to be small—about the size of today’s mice or rats. They are largely identified from the tiny teeth they left behind.

In comparison, this one was positively huge. A cousin to modern-day marsupials, this animal weighed 2 pounds or more. But it’s not quite a record. The Didelphodon, another fossil mammal from the same period, may have weighed as much as 11 pounds. H. piceanus’ teeth indicate it dined on plants, with a few insects or small animals mixed in.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/paleontologists-discover-colorado-swamp-dweller-mammal-that-lived-alongside-dinosaurs/ar-AA1sNCLe?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=ed46623d933043f19069e3bf9a8f9350&ei=83 

Review of a Sweet Potato Pie

I decided to try something new this week; review a food item. I don’t normally do this. I normally just eat and make a mental note whether I would eat it again or not. But this was my first Sweet Potato Pie we had this holiday season, and I thought I would try my hand at reviewing it.

I didn’t grow up with sweet potato pie being offered at the holiday table. We had sweet potatoes. They were cooked, mashed with brown sugar and thrown in the oven with a layer of marshmallows on top. Sort of a sweet potato casserole, I guess. And I loved that, but once I became diabetic, I had to give that up.

This year, we stopped at a store we don’t often shop at to look for a dessert, because I’d forgotten to pick up dessert at our regular store. And they had plenty of pies to choose from; blueberry, peach, apple, cherry, sweet potato and pumpkin. I was trying to decide between the fruit pies (I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie), when my husband suggested a sweet potato pie. He always says I never try anything new, so it surprised him when I agreed. He snatched up a sweet potato pie and headed for the register.

When the time came for dessert on Christmas Day, I took a closer look at that sweet potato pie. It looked a lot like a pumpkin pie, only yellow, not orange. And I didn’t see any little specks of spice in it, like you sometimes see in a pumpkin pie. I cut it into pieces and served it with some whipped cream.

The crust was not really flaky, just a layer of flour crust. The whipped cream was typical, sweet and creamy foam. The filling was creamy, like the filling of a pumpkin pie, but it tasted like sweet potatoes. Like a baked sweet potato, not with the brown sugar and marshmallow sweetness of my childhood sweet potato casserole. So I ate it, but I thought it could have used some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, even though that would make it more like the pumpkin pie I’m not that fond of.

Would I eat it again? Probably. If it was a choice between it or pumpkin pie. Or mincemeat pie. But I’m in no hurry to learn how to make it.